The glass is shattering in the ceilings of British enterprise, as female company directors are growing in number, getting younger and bettering their male counterparts in profit-making.
In an analysis of more than 3.7 million company directors, Experian found that women are more likely than men, by 57.7% to 55.7%, to be directors of firms that are making a profit, despite being still outnumbered by male directors by 3.4 to one.
Demographics are changing though, the study found, with females making up almost a quarter of all directors in the UK and steadily growing.
One reason for women's boardroom expansion is an increasing focus on their careers earlier in life, according to the research.
The proportion of women directors in the 18 to 29 age range is higher than the proportion of male directors, with female in this range accounting for 5.4% of all women directors compared with 3.9% of male directors.
Men, overall, however, still outnumber female directors by 2.5 to one within this age band.
"Men may still dominate boardrooms across the UK, but young women are increasingly making careers at director level, and so it is important to tailor relevant direct marketing material to appeal to both women and men," said Richard Lloyd, from Experian
The strongest gains made by women directors have been in SMEs, typically in companies relating to private households, health and social work, education, and even agriculture, hunting and forestry.
Men still dominate in large corporations, and particularly within industries such as electricity, gas and water supply, where they outnumber women by eight to one.
Further analysis showed that women have the best boardroom ratio with men in southwest England, Northern Ireland and Wales, with London boasting the lowest ratio of female to male directors.
